40yrs - The Moon and a Song called Armstrong

[The Rez]

America's Space Program was front and center in my youth. Both my parents
worked for North American Aviation [later Rockwell] for *real* Rocket Scientists.

Below is the link to a photo of my folks standing by the Apollo 11 Command Module
only *two* days after Splashdown.

<http://api.photoshop.com/home_5a26803752f949e4973a71ca7931c6ac/adobe-px-assets/af915b81fe594b59ab0563e89ed6563b>

NASA celebrates this 40th Anniversary vividly.

<http://www.nasa.gov/home/>

As a kid, I was allowed to meet each of the Astronauts from Mercury thru
Gemini thru Apollo.

John Stewart's song *Armstrong* appeared on 'Cannons in the Rain.' I played
it immediately for my folks. Mama took a cassette into work so the *real*
Rocket Scientists could hear the song.

I don't know exactly who all she played the tape for - but beaucoups fine
Rocket Folk heard it. And beaucoups Rocket Folk bought the album, only
to re-discover John in the process. Kingston Trio was in their DNA already.

'Radio air play' and 'public acclaim' aren't the measure we here choose when
we speak of The Music and it's Value

John's *Armstrong* lived it's own internal person-to-person mighty life in the
hearts of so many of the very people that made the song necessary to be written
. . . and is being revisited today.

'Armstrong the Man' and 'Armstrong the Song' are cherished by more Starmen
than you . . . or I . . . can conceive. Mama was a fairly dangerous Cherokee!

Dad died in 1990 at the age of 90. Mama passed just last September at 92yrs.
M.W. "Jack" Bell - Mama's boss for 30yrs lives today, albeit in the final-stages
of Parkinson's' Mr. Bell is quite keenly aware today of both "Armstrongs"

Look up,

Rex

Be the Moon
[Psalm 148:3]

[Borderstone]

My brother James was very lucky to be just under 2 months from age 5 the day they landed on the moon.

He got to see it on TV with our parents and Grandmother live that day.

I was only 1 year,1 month and week old. My other brother only 2 years and 18 days.

I have seen the films on PBS since then. So many times it almost feels like I did watch it.

I recently found at Goodwill a vinyl album of the moon landing. Not the actual broadcast but a narrorated version by the late great Mr. Walter Cronkite,with sounds from the broadcast included. In it's original sleeve to boot. I gave it to my brother James becasue he was there,I wasn't.

He loves it of course. ;)

[fezo]

Thanks for posting that. I'll be listening to John's Armstrong tonight.

Stunning what we can do when we really decide to do it. I can remember that first step of Armstrong's like it was yesterday.

[Borderstone]

I envy you for being able to have seen that first hand! :redface: ( Sorry,no green for envy).

[Bill]

Watched the moon landing as a 9 year old kid...followed space program with Walter and Wally. Twenty years later heard the John Stewart song "Armstrong" at a club in Dallas -- gave me goose bumps.

[fezo]

I was 18. Just out of high school.

I remember when Cannons in the Rain came out. I was a DJ on my college radio stations and it came in and I listened to it in the production studio. One of his two best works in my book.

[joveski]

been there, done that :)

[ELizabeth]

I was 29 years old and watched the entire moon landing while feeding my brand new son. Great combination that; watching the first man on the moon and having a new baby to nuture!

[geodeticman.5]

Good to be on-line and I say Hello my friends !

Rez - I can relate .... grew up a sort of NASA brat, even though it is non-military, which many folks thought it was with mis-portrayals like in 'I Dream of Genie' ! Like you, 'cept just my Dad was a Rocket scientist. He ran the unmanned launch vehicles division in Cleveland LERC, now Glenn Research Center, and was flight director much as portrayed by Ed Harris in Apollo 13. But he smoked a pipe.

Interesting phenom - Rez ever notice how virtually all NASA Engineers et al wore 3/4 short sleeve white shirts ? The de riguer uniform ;)

I got to ride up the assembly (not launch)-gantry inside the V.A.B. and look inside the Centaur nosecone at the historic pre-launch of the interstellar Voyageur with the brass plate and forms of a man and woman with hands up in sign of hello, and inside a first CD of sorts with a time capsule sampling of mankinds knowledge, still whizing along toward Alpha Centauri 3-(they still hope, its long past radio broadcast-able, and is theoretically still whizzing by under inertia or its own momentum), unless acted upon by another force, such as colliding with 'NOMAD' or worse as portrayed in the TOS StarTrek episode with the 'floating' (you could see the wires lol ) results of the collision. It wanted to 'STERILIZE' until ever-sharp Kirk out-Logic-ed it and it had to sterilize itself by blowing up. Now it would only need Germ-X.

More relevant perhaps was the potrayal of another derivative Star Trek Movie #1 with the agonizingly-long travel into the giant creme-horn and the 'weep-wow' song for 30 friggin' minutes ! When Steve Collins scratches the name-plate of derivative plot collision results called 'Vyga' - it was the Voyageur craft Dad and 1000's of personnel launched, collided with yet another confused alien craft, and in space the now-one craft amazingly meshed program code in different languages, and from those days linked and compiled them one can only presume lol...clever girls... as John Hurt said in 'Contact' - with Jodie Foster and some screen self-satisfied appearing male. She makes "1st Contact" and they build the big 3" gyro we all had as kids in the 60's.

Joveski - funny you should say that. - "been there, done that " - as after my Father had launched and successfully soft-landed Viking I on Mars ALSO enjoying its anniversary every July 20 for the landing, but incorrectly in recent years the two newer soft Landings were said by media to be the first. I saw a small tear roll down my elerly father's cheek, so I had a NASA-blue baseball hat made for him that said in varius locations on it, and red, white, and blue: NASA Viking I Soft Landed on Mars on July 20, 1976, Russ did it ! Been There, Done That, Got the Hat ! MARS ! - and on the back - "No big deal - did it twice and got bored" about 30 years before the recent "firsts" X 2. I gave it to him on his Birthday, both Anniversaries of Missions being 11 days after HIS birthday and 1 day after mine - so I can recall Apollo AND Viking I very easily ! lol

I hope to see more of you guys, borrowed PC, littel login time. This caught my eye - Thanks Rez and Joveski-er !

[timetraveler]

The closest I ever came to seeing any space shots would be when our teacher would check out a television for our classroom so we could watch it as it was being broadcast live. I didn't realize then that history was being made.